So who will we get?

I haven't seen many credible rumors. What I've seen is a lot of theories based on people playing some sort of football version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with Sanford Stadium and Mark Richt alternating their roles as Kevin Bacon. Or just a random wish list of candidates.

So before I list who I want, I'd rather list what I want from a coach:

1. Someone with a relentless desire to be a head coach. Or someone with an unquenchable desire to be great. Someone that will sleep in their office if that's what it takes to figure out how to stop our opposition.

2. Someone who isn't set for life rich. The last thing we need is someone sitting on a multi-million dollar settlement from his flamed out head coaching career. That guy isn't going to put in the hours to be great.

3. Someone with an attack mentality. Someone that brings VIOLENCE and TEMPO back to our defense. Someone that keeps opposing offensive coordinators sleeping in their offices to figure out how to stop his unit.

4. Someone that teaches terrific fundamental football. I'm not looking for gimmick systems like John Thompson or Joe Lee Dunn. I want to see someone that will put our guys in the position to make the play.

5. Someone that takes recruiting seriously, and gets personally involved. Not someone who thinks that's beneath them or who sucks at it.

Let's talk about who I think we won't get or shouldn't pursue....

Who We Won't Get:

1. Tommy Tuberville - This is the single most absurd rumor / theory I've seen. Tommy is sitting on $6 million from his settlement with Auburn, and he can wait for the right head coaching opportunity to come along. Plus, he has said repeatedly that he doesn't want to be a defensive coordinator. He wants to be a head coach. This isn't like saying, "I don't want to leave Ole Miss." That's something you say to fool people into thinking you're staying. When you DO want a new job and you're unemployed, you tell everyone who will listen what kind of job you want. Tuberville and his agent Jimmy Sexton think he'll be a legitimate candidate for a variety of BCS jobs this year or next, and with his resume they are right. Those jobs will pay him $2.5-3.0 million per year. There are only two assistant coaches in college football who make over $900,000. Most big-time DCs make $300-500k. If he comes here, I'll eat my hat. I'd be thrilled, but no way it happens.

2. Will Muschamp - The former Dawg makes over $900,000, and he's the coach in waiting at Texas. At Texas, he can get all the talent who wants with relative ease, and he has an easier road to the national title than in the SEC. Playing for National Titles gets you head coaching jobs faster than anything else. Plus, UGA has shown zero indication that it has any interest in getting into a bidding war with a school like Texas.

Who I don't want:

1. Jon Tenuta - Check out Tenuta's stats at Notre Dame. Now check out Martinez's stats. Willie is better in almost every category despite playing dramatically tougher competition. Weis is being fired because the defense is wretched, and this is Tenuta's second pathetic defense in two years. At Georgia Tech, he was a notoriously uninvolved recruiter, a sandpaper personality and a wildly inconsistent performances. His defenses at Tech had such staggeringly bad performances as giving up 51 in Athens, 30 to Fresno St., 39 to Clemson, 41 to Duke, 34 to a bad UNC team, 51 to VT, 38 to Utah, 38 to WVU and 40 to Fresno St. I could've listed him in the "Who We Won't Get" list, but I'd rather list him in the "we'd be insane to consider." Personality wise, matching him with Richt would be the match made in hell.

2. Chuck Amato, Ron Zook or Sly Croom - Amato has never been a DC, and Fisher doesn't want him at FSU. Zook has been fired or demoted at almost every coaching job for nearly 20 years. Croom has never been a defensive coordinator, and he's spent much of the late 80s and 90s as a running backs coach. All are sitting on enormous piles of severance cash, and I don't think any of them are that impressive.

Guys that intrigue me:

1. Kirby Smart - I really don't think we can get him. Plus, he's going to be the center piece of a bidding war between FSU and Bama after this season as he's apparently Jimbo's #1 candidate to replace Andrews. I'm not sure we could get him to leave Saban anyway, but I'm less confident that we would pay what it would take to get him.

2. Kevin Steele - The current Clemson DC has worked for Nick Saban, Dom Capers, Mickey Andrews (before he started struggling), and Tom Osborne. His teams play smart aggressive football. He was a bust as a head coach at Baylor, but who hasn't been a bust as head coach at Baylor? He really intrigues me.

3. Bob Sanders - Current Bills DL coach. Sanders worked with Spurrier at Duke and Florida from the late 80s-2000 mostly as the #2 defensive assistant, but never the DC. After moving to the pros, he coached in Green Bay as DC as well as Miami and Buffalo as DL coach. He is incredibly intriguing.

There are other names floating around, but none that I think are all that realistic for the Defensive Coordinator job. For the Fabris position, I would VERY much like to see us bring Travis Jones home. The former Dawg is the current DL coach for the New Orleans Saints, and he's doing a helluva job there. He worked with Saban at LSU as DL Coach and Recruiting Coordinator on the 2003 National Title team, and he followed him to Miami. He has coached all front seven positions from both the 3-4 and the 4-3.

Regardless of who we get, they have to be able to recruit. We have to keep upgrading the talent. The last two classes were directionally right, but we need more high end defensive studs.

As for Brian Van Gorder, I just don't see it happening.

PWD

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